The Overbrook Foundation is a progressive family foundation that supports organizations advancing human rights and conserving the natural environment.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

DRI Director in Mexico Awarded National Youth Award

Sofía Galván, the Director of Mexico and Central America for Disability Rights International (DRI), will receive the National Youth Award from the Mexican government in December.This award, Mexico’s highest public honor, is given to a young person whose career has already improved his/her communities and inspired others in his/her generation. Ms. Galván has been honored because of her work as a lawyer and advocate to defend, promote and educate others about human rights, including the human rights of adults and children with disabilities in Mexico through her work with Overbrook Foundation Grantee DRI. Her achievements include her support of the establishment of Colectivo Chuhcan, the first Mexican advocacy organization run by people with psychosocial disabilities, and her efforts to publicize the human rights abuses against people with disabilities living in psychiatric facilities, orphanages and other institutions to a larger public. This information has been documented in a recent DRI report, Abandoned & Disappeared: Mexico's Segregation and Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities. After investigating abuses and contributing to the writing of this report, Galván will use it to train other human rights advocates and government officials so that they can protect this population and understand issues that are specific to Mexicans with disabilities. The Overbrook Foundation congratulates Ms. Galván on her award and her fight to defend human rights for the adults and children with disabilities who have been forgotten by others in their communities.

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The Overbrook Foundation, located in New York City, is a family foundation established in 1948 by Frank and Helen Altschul. The Foundation took its name from Overbrook Farm, the Altschul family home in Stamford, Connecticut. At the end of 2011, the Foundation has an endowment of approximately $122.6 million and had awarded approximately $6.1 million in grants over the course of that year.